From the lowliest fast-food purchases to the splashiest style splurges, economies run on what we spend. So it's enlightening to see what we spend on - particularly amongst big spenders. Luxury brands of course rank amongst the world's top 100 brands, but less loftily than you might think.

Mercedes tops the rest at #10, followed by Vuitton at #19 - and close on its heels: the very non-luxury fast-fash chain H&M (#21). Nike (#22) was deemed by Instagrammers to be cooler than Chanel (!) - and Zara (#36) is neck-and-neck with the roundly-disliked white-shoe investment house, J.P. Morgan (#35). Gucci (#41) & Hermes (#46) managed to squeak into the Top 50, but the remaining luxury brands that made the list are in the bottom 50: Cartier (#58), Prada (#70), Tiffany (#71), Burberry (#73), Lauren (#83) & Boss (#97)...which is a mere two-steps along the food chain from Gap (#99).

With the sheer amount of press coverage and social-media outrage devoted to income inequality and the let-them-eat-cake mentality of the 1%, you'd think luxury rules the Best Brands list...not mass-market Coke and certainly not that downmarket clown, Ronald McD. But that's an understandable misconception given that there are actually far fewer true prestige brands than you might think. "Name an industry and you’ll find a staggering number of brands purporting to be premium, many with global ambitions," observes Milton Pedraza, CEO of Luxury Institute. "Our industry has too many hotel chains, too many handbags and apparel producers, too many automotive providers, too many wealth managers, too many watch and jewelry makers and too many private jet charter companies. There are too many “luxury” and premium brands in the world, but not enough great ones."

The "great" ones, like Apple, are actually great - they make the stuff we want to buy and do it well enough to keep us coming back year after year, which pushes them into a club as rarefied as the world's Top 100 brands. The takeaway, I think, is that over the longer time horizons that it takes to establish yourself as a bonafide luxury fashion brand, what puts you there is something quite boring and lacking in sizzle: actual, honest-to-god, good ole' fashioned quality. "It will be time for true luxury brands to stop benchmarking the mundane players," adds Pedraza, and "understand their own brand identity, values, and standards - and get back to delivering differentiated, fully-priced value." (illustration)

- Lesley Scott

NOTE: This post was about trends affecting the Supremium fashion tribe - spendy, style-conscious fashionistas that enjoy jetsetting, globetrotting and shopping their way across the globe. To learn more about each of fashion's four mega-tribes that I track, START HERE.

From the lowliest fast-food purchases to the splashiest style splurges, economies run on what we spend. So it's enlightening to see what we spend on - particularly amongst big spenders. Luxury brands of course rank amongst the world's top 100 brands, but less loftily than you might think.

Mercedes tops the rest at #10, followed by Vuitton at #19 - and close on its heels: the very non-luxury fast-fash chain H&M (#21). Nike (#22) was deemed by Instagrammers to be cooler than Chanel (!) - and Zara (#36) is neck-and-neck with the roundly-disliked white-shoe investment house, J.P. Morgan (#35). Gucci (#41) & Hermes (#46) managed to squeak into the Top 50, but the remaining luxury brands that made the list are in the bottom 50: Cartier (#58), Prada (#70), Tiffany (#71), Burberry (#73), Lauren (#83) & Boss (#97)...which is a mere two-steps along the food chain from Gap (#99).

With the sheer amount of press coverage and social-media outrage devoted to income inequality and the let-them-eat-cake mentality of the 1%, you'd think luxury rules the Best Brands list...not mass-market Coke and certainly not that downmarket clown, Ronald McD. But that's an understandable misconception given that there are actually far fewer true prestige brands than you might think. "Name an industry and you’ll find a staggering number of brands purporting to be premium, many with global ambitions," observes Milton Pedraza, CEO of Luxury Institute. "Our industry has too many hotel chains, too many handbags and apparel producers, too many automotive providers, too many wealth managers, too many watch and jewelry makers and too many private jet charter companies. There are too many “luxury” and premium brands in the world, but not enough great ones."

The "great" ones, like Apple, are actually great - they make the stuff we want to buy and do it well enough to keep us coming back year after year, which pushes them into a club as rarefied as the world's Top 100 brands. The takeaway, I think, is that over the longer time horizons that it takes to establish yourself as a bonafide luxury fashion brand, what puts you there is something quite boring and lacking in sizzle: actual, honest-to-god, good ole' fashioned quality. "It will be time for true luxury brands to stop benchmarking the mundane players," adds Pedraza, and "understand their own brand identity, values, and standards - and get back to delivering differentiated, fully-priced value." (illustration)

- Lesley Scott

NOTE: This post was about trends affecting the Supremium fashion tribe - spendy, style-conscious fashionistas that enjoy jetsetting, globetrotting and shopping their way across the globe. To learn more about each of fashion's four mega-tribes that I track, START HERE.